The speaker is a twenty-two-year-old Black college student originally from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who previously attended school in Durham. He currently takes classes at the City College of New York, where he is the only Black student in his class. After his daily commute crossing St. Nicholas, Eighth Avenue, and Seventh Avenue, he returns to his room at the Harlem Branch YMCA. He enjoys everyday activities like eating, sleeping, learning, and being in love, as well as listening to records by artists like Bessie Smith and Bach. He considers how his race and environment shape his identity and his writing in a predominantly white academic setting.

The instructor is an older, white professor teaching an English B course at a college located on a hill above Harlem. He assigns his students a one-page autobiographical prompt, suggesting that writing from the self inherently makes the work true. His privileged racial status and age grant him more societal freedom than his Black student. The two men remain linked through their shared educational environment and an exchange of ideas, where the instructor learns from the student just as the student learns from him.

Harlem is a predominantly Black neighborhood in New York City that functions as a living, conversational entity in the text. Defined by sensory experiences, including what the speaker feels, sees, and hears, the borough directly influences the young student's identity. It shares a mutual dialogue with the speaker, communicating with him as he writes his assignment. Geographically and culturally, the neighborhood stands in contrast to the predominantly white academic institution located on the hill above it.